In a conventional automatic transaction apparatus, a bill, that has been inserted in a bill deposit/withdrawal section during a deposit transaction, is conveyed and the authenticity thereof is discriminated at a discrimination section, and a bill, that is a legitimate bill from these discrimination results, is stored once in a temporary holding section, and, after the transaction is settled, the bill that is stored in the temporary holding section is again discriminated, and, in accordance with the denomination thereof, is conveyed to and stored in a bill storage section that is structured from plural cassettes (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-108160 (paragraph [0008] through paragraph [0015]).
Generally, an automatic transaction apparatus is structured so as to be divided into an upper unit and a lower unit, and the aforementioned bill deposit/withdrawal section, discriminating section, and temporary holding section are provided within the upper unit, and the bill storage section is provided within the lower unit. At the upper unit, there is provided a conveying path that conveys bills to the respective sections and has a branching portion for conveying bills to the respective cassettes of the bill storage section of the lower unit. Accordingly, the conveying path of bills is branched-off at the branching portion that is on the midst of the conveying path of the upper unit, and the bills are conveyed to the respective cassettes of the lower unit.